Home Dome

Nearly 2 years ago, I started construction of an observatory. I had a large 20" f/4.3 Dobson telescope that was nearly 7 feet long. And building a dome fitted into what I wanted to do. The construction of that observatory can be seen on other website. That dome was destoryed on 28 June 1998 by 107 MPH Straight Line Winds. That same storm also slammed my Meade 10" LX200, to the floor of my deck and then moved it 4 feet!  So, State Farm had to pay for both replacements. I contacted Meg at Technical Innovations on buying a 6-10 foot HomeDome/ProDome. She was very knowledgeable and helped me "finally" decide on the 6 foot Home Dome (Tall). The walls are 6 feet acrossed and the top of the dome is approximately 82 inches high. This will clear a 10" LX200 on a 40" pier and Super Wedge.

Crate from Hell..!!!

  It stated with a called from the local trucking company in Rochester, Minnesota. They had a massive crate addressed to me on their truck and wondered what I wanted to do with it. They agreed to bring it to my home 25 miles away. BUT, I had to unload the truck! I called the local lumber yard and tghey agreed to get the crate to the ground. And they had a "boom" truck that they would rent at $75.00 per hour. The truck mounted crane placed the crate right in my drive way and ended up costing me only $35.00!

Dome Halves in crate

    The fiberglass dome and walls were well packed. And I opened the crate with little trouble. The HD6T comes with 3 wall sections, 3 shutters, and 2 dome halves.

The walls, one with a computer cubby, and the dome halves can be seen above. Be careful removing them from the crate so that you do not damage the gel coat.

Above you can see the walls in place on a 12'x12' pad. Behind them is a the clam shell cover that I used to protect the LX200 til the new dome was in place. A blizzard had dumped 10 inches of snow on us the day before. But the weather was clear and nice during construction.

The walls were easy to move and attach to the pad. Above you can see the walls in place and my new Meade 10" LX200.

Construction of the dome was fairly easy. But, some points in the manual could have been explained alitlle better. Above is my wife, Fran, checking the book on some point in question. And here is the nice hat you get with your dome. Nice touch..!

Construction of the dome entails lots and lots of Duct Tape!!! We used it on the Dome Support Ring(DSR), Rear Shutter, and the Dome Halves. Just as they stated in the book!

The 6 foot dome can handle 1-2 people easily, but movement around the center pier can be touch and go. So, if you plan to have others in the dome, think about a 10 footer. And above you can see the completed dome with the shutters in place. Total time took about 3 days of afternoons only.

Pro's and Con's

Pro's  :  Outstanding Finish, Ease of Construction, Remote Operation, Great Technical Support, Nut and bolts in their own bags

Con's    :  High Cost, Working with Fiberglass dust, Manual unclear on some points, dome too small for movement around large piers

Would I buy another dome from Technical Innovations?

                              You bet!!!!!!!!!!!